Steam-blower.



PATBNTBD JAN. 6, 1903. E'. GIBsoN. STEAM 13mm-3P..l APPLICATION FILEDJUNE.17, 1901.

R0 MODEL.

vW vl. CNL. V.. N Il Arromvfy ilNrTEn STATES- VPATEiwr" rtliche EDWARDGIBSON, or JERSEY orrir, NEW JERSEY.-

STEAM-BLOWER.v

SPECIFICATION forming part 'of Letters Patent No. 717,566, dated January6, 1.903?. Application filed June lil, 1901. Serial No. 64,841. (Nomedal.)

To all whom t may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDWARD GIBSON, a citizen of the United States,residing in Jersey City, in the countyof Hudson, in the State of NewJersey, have-invented a certain new and useful Improvement in.S'teamfBlowerm of which the following is a specification.

It has long been known that fires can be successfully blown by drivingair into the ashpit by the friotional action of strong currents ofsteam. Steam at full pressure is laken from the boiler and allowed toescape with great force through small apertures in pipes arranged in apassage through which air is introduced into the space under the grate.Properly conditioned a large quantity of air is thus introduced at apressure sufficiently high to materially increase the upiiow through themass of burning fuel. The steam on reaching the re assumes a dry andsuperheated condition, and after this condition is attained it isbelieved to contribute much to the clearness and vigor of thecombustion. My blower is of such class. Among other modes of arrangingsuch perforated pipes has been the placing them in an aperture in thedoor and making them turn therewith in the opening and closing of thedoor. I do this. I have devised simple means for drying the steam thusused before it is carried into the ash-pit, thus attaining economy bybringing somer of the spent heat back to ,the fire, and this withoutrisk of ever too much superheating it. This allows the maintaining of aperfect swinging joint in the line of the doorhinges. I have discoveredthat by making the entire blowing means for a door in one continuouslength of pipe I can without requiring any other than the ordinarydooropening blow more economically and efliciently than by anyconstruction of suc-h device known to me and provide for easily cleaningthe interior of the coils when required. The pipe in the door is bent toan approximate volute, with its center carried inward, making ittapered. I will refer to it sometimes as snail-formed.7 I vary from thesimple snail form in three important respects: First, the coil is nearlyelliptical, matching to a casing put into the ordinary door-opening;second, the inner` end departs from the snail form entirely and standsat right angles to the plane of the door, and, third, such end has a capwhich may be removed to blow through for cleaning. This cap, like the entire face of the coil which is presented toward the interior of theash-pit, is perforated.

3 is a horizontal section, on a larger scale, on.

the line 3 3 in' Fig. l.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all thetigures where they appear.

A is the front end of the boiler; A', the stack 5 A2, the frontconnection or uptake, sometimes termed breeching, and the horizontaldotted line A3 the upper tier of ordinary tubes, (shown simply as asingle iiue,) which perform the usual function of bringing forward tothe front connection the gaseous products of combustion which have'moved rearward under the body.

B is a pipe bringing steam from the dome of the boiler, (not shown,) andB a cock which may control it, but which will usually stand fully open.B2 is a coil or series of traverses of this pipe through which the steampasses,arranged at thefront end of theboiler above the line A8, so thatthese pipes do not interfere with the cleaning of the tubes. The steamin traversing the coil Aa is superheated.

C is the grate, c the ash-pit space under the grate, and D the ash-pitdoor, formed with a nearly elliptical casing D opening through it andturning on hinges D2, which may be of the ordinary construction.

vand a half) of complete turns or coils of the pipe in the taperingcoil. Each turn has straight portions M' M3, &c., extendinghorizontally, and the outer and larger coils have each considerableupright portions M2. Each succeeding turn is smaller and set fartherinward toward the interior of the ash -pit. The innermost endM4is-turned, as shown, to extend about in the line of the motion of theair and is screw threaded and receives a nely-perforated cap N n.

There is in addition to the rarely used cock B at the higher position acock D4 more conveniently reached and which controls the flow of steamfrom the superheater to the tapering coil. When the door D is shut andthis cock is open or partially open, the steam jets inward into theash-pit from all the apertures m, so that each jet moves past, but doesnot strike the coil next within that from which it issues. The severaljets n from the cap N blow obviously Without risk of striking anything.All drive the surrounding atmospheric air inward to induce a plenum inthe ash-pit and accordingly to move the air and superheated steam upthrough the grate to quicken the fire,according as the boiler-pressureis high or low and as the cock D4 is more or less opened. To obtainaccess to the ashpit to remove ashes and clinkers or for any otherpurpose,it is only necessary to shut the cock D4 and swing open the doorD, carrying the elliptic casing and tapering coil with it. This coil orsnail may, withits capped end N, extend well into the ash-pit, takingcare not to reach so far that the smallest tapering coil or the casing Dwill not strike the opposite side of the doorway in opening and closing,and when swung quite open it will simply project outward from theboiler-front and willoifer no obstruction to working in the ash-pit. Theconstruction allows so much space for the passage of the air by itsmotion simplyincliuing outward from thecenter line in passing each coilthat no appreciable resistance seems to be due to the presence of thepipe, allowing natural draft to be made available when the steam ispartly or entirely shut off.

Modifications may be made without departing from the principle orsacrificing the advantages of the invention. I can vary the sharpness ofthe curves at the corners of the nearly elliptical casing D and thenearly elliptical tapering coils of the snail. I can vary the diameterot' the pipe and the sizes of the perforations, taking care to have sucha ratio that the pressure of the steam will be maintained with onlyslight loss quite to the inner end. The door D may be made to overlapmore or less upon the metal of the boilerfront adjacent to the doorway,the main function of the door exterior to the open casing D' being tosimply prevent the air in the ashpit, which is a half-ounce per squareinch or some other amount above atmosphere, from blowing out. Thesuperheating of the steam may be eected at other points than shown. Onemay be in the back connection. A specially good place is under theboiler in rear of the bridge-wall.

I claim as my invention- 1. As a means for blowing into ash-pits bysteam an approximately helical but tapering coil of pipe mounted in anaperture in the wall and connected with a steam-boiler, the severalconvolutions being perforated on the sides presented toward the interiorof the ashpit and so arranged that the jets of steam projected from eachconvolution pass on the outer side of each of the smaller convolutionsall substantially as herein specified.

2. As a means for blowing into ash-pits by steam-jets, the combinationwith the swinging joint E, door D and casing D' of a nearly ellipticaltapering coil M within said casing D' formed from a single continuouslength of pipe having a line of perforations m arranged to project jetsfrom each convolution past the next smaller convolution, allsubstantially as herein specified.

3. As a means for blowing into ash-pits by steam-jets, the combinationwith the swinging joint E, door D and casing D', of a nearly ellipticaltapering coil M within said casing D formed from a single continuouslength of pipe havinga line of perforations m, arranged to project jetsfrom each convolution past the next, the axially-turned end M4 and theremovable cap N on such end, all adapted to serve substantially asherein speciiied.

Il. As a means for blowing into ash-pits by steam-jets, the combinationwith the swinging joint E, door D and casing D', of a nearly ellipticaltapering coil M within said casing D having perforations m, arranged toproject the steam from each convolution past the next, and with thedrying and superheating coils B2 arranged in the spent gases andcommunicating with said coil M through said joint E, all arranged forjoint operation substantially as herein specied.

5. The combination with a closed ash-pit provided with an air-inletpassage opening into said ash-pit below the grate, of an airimpellingsteam-pipe in said passage in the form of a tapering coil so as to causelittle obstruction to said passage and provided with orifices soarranged as to project the steam in jets parallel with the axis of saidpassage and of said coil and thereby to avoid the interruption of saidjets by contact with one another or the inner convolutions of said coil,substantially as described.

In testimony that I claim the invention above set forth I affix mysignature in presence of two witnesses.

EDWARD GIBSON.

Witnesses:

J. B. CLAUTIOE, M. F. BOYLE.

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